We Can See the Color of the Sky in the Newest Pluto Pictures—and It's Stunning

10/10/2015

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We have recently got a full-color sight of Pluto’s skies—and
they look shockingly familiar. NASA just released its first color image of
those planetary hazes they’ve been so questioning about. And, it turns out
that, just exactly like Earth, Pluto has some perky blue skies bending
overhead. Blue skies of Earth and the blue skies of Pluto certainly have some resemblances—but
there are also, obviously, some really alien differences: “A blue sky often
results from scattering of sunlight by very small particles.” said science group
researcher Carly Howett, also of SwRI “That striking blue tint tells us about
the size and composition of the haze particles. On Earth, those particles are
very tiny nitrogen molecules. On Pluto they appear to be larger — but still
relatively small — soot-like particles we call tholins.”

Image Credit : NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

In the meantime, there’s another odd thing researchers found
in this latest batch of photos (as shown below). Pretty outstanding, no? Mostly
that big red spot in the lower left corner. Well scientists point a lot of
Pluto’s red color to tholin particles, which shrink and get covered in frost
before falling back down to Pluto’s surface. And it’s that giant red stain
above that is precisely where they found water in the form of ice. Just why the
ice is red rests a mystery, however—for now.

Image Credit : NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

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